Faced with the observation today that his Dad occupies a senior in Portugal's premier energy company, the Secretary of State for Energy declined to offer any comment as to potential conflicts of interest.
After an unimpressive political career, Artur Trindade became a consultant for EDP in 2013, a move that has been pointed out in a complaint by the businessman Manuel Champalimaud.
Faced with this accusation, the Secreatry of State declined to comment and his father promises to supply a written response.
An official source at EDP confirmed that the father of the Secretary of State for Energy, also called Artur Trindade, has been an external consultant to EDP since 2013, as part of a special committee created in 2012.
"EDP believes that his long municipal experience is an asset in the long-term relationships established between local authorities and the group," said the official EDP source.
Businessman and investor Manuel Champalimaud said today that "the father of the Secretary of State is a new director at EDP."
At the end of the general meeting of energy supply company REN, in which the shareholders approved the 2014 accounts and its new governing bodies, Champalimaud criticised the government for its taxation policies for the energy sector which penalised companies and did not allow them to raise prices to cover the amounts paid out.
He also has complained of the conflict of interests in having the Secretary of State's father in a powerful position in the industry for which his son is in charge of developing policy and regulation.
Artur Trindade was the PSD mayor of Porto de Mos council, and the general secretary of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), a position he left in late 2013 for a happy career in the heady world of energy supply.
